I am having lots of trouble trying to get light to shine through a window
For some reason my computer isn't letting me access the file, I don't think it's an issue from your end though. I know I can't offer much assistance, but your question brought to mind a glass hack that I once saw in a video from Blender Guru. The link is here and the node set up is at 5:02 in the video. If this is useless information to you I'm very sorry.